End of Transition – Shifting Focus A Quarter Century After the Soviet Collapse

For Immediate Release 

Call for Conference Papers and Announcement of Research Support.

Yet Armenia’s has been a decidedly nonlinear path toward democracy, a market economy, and most recently, to regional integration within the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Post-Soviet scholarship has paid relatively scant attention to the case of Armenia.To understand these political, economic, and social processes of the past twenty-five years, and to fill the gap in scholarship, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies will be hosting a two-part conference in April of 2017, in Los Angeles and in Yerevan.  The conference will encourage papers that investigate the transitional and post-transitional processes both within Armenia, as well as in the region.

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September 21, 2016

USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California, USA

Contact: Salpi Ghazarian, Director

Armenian@usc.edu

213.821.3943        

End of Transition – Shifting Focus A Quarter Century After the Soviet Collapse

Call for Conference Papers and Announcement of Research Support

Since the Soviet collapse, the Republic of Armenia – like all Soviet successor states – has undergone its own unique political, social, and economic transition process.  The paradigm of transitology presupposes a fairly linear trajectory from authoritarianism to democratization and closer ties with Europe.  Yet Armenia’s has been a decidedly nonlinear path toward democracy, a market economy, and most recently, to regional integration within the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Post-Soviet scholarship has paid relatively scant attention to the case of Armenia.

To understand these political, economic, and social processes of the past twenty-five years, and to fill the gap in scholarship, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies will be hosting a two-part conference in April of 2017, in Los Angeles and in Yerevan.  The conference will encourage papers that investigate the transitional and post-transitional processes both within Armenia, as well as in the region.

“On the 25th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, the Institute is pleased to be able to support this area of study.  Political, social, economic and regional policies of the last 25 years will be understood with solid scholarship,” said Salpi Ghazarian, director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies.

The USC Institute of Armenian Studies will be accepting proposals from all fields, in particular, those that cover the following:

•          Demographics: fertility, mortality, and migration

•          Patterns of social inequality

•          Family, gender, and sexuality

•          Regionalisms of Armenia

•          Social policy: Education, healthcare, pensions, social security and housing

•          Formal and informal political institutions and economy

•          Rurality: changing agricultural systems, climate change, local economies and depopulation

•          Foreign policy

•          Bottom-up cultural production, social shifts, social movements, and political contention

•          Armenia-Diaspora relations

•          Regional (South Caucasus) and global integration

•          Comparative analyses with political, social, and economic issues in other post-Soviet states

Call for Conference Papers

Scholars and practitioners (activists, diplomats, journalists, writers) are invited to submit proposals for participation in this landmark event.  Participants will include not only experts on Armenia but on other post-Soviet regions, not just political scientists but people from other scholarly and practical fields.    

Proposals for conference papers will be accepted until October 14, 2016. Please address them to conference.armenian@usc.edu. They should be no more than 500 words, and must include:

1. Short abstract that outlines methodology, main assumptions, and conclusions of the paper

2. Author/participant name(s) and contact information

3. Institutional affiliation (if any)

4. One paragraph biographical statement for each participant (not a CV)

5. The Conference working language is English. Proposals and presentations must be in English.

Selection will be completed by December 1, 2016.

Announcement of Research Support

The Institute also welcomes proposals for research grants that will address any aspect of the above topics. Grants will cover new and ongoing research such as dissertation research or postdoctoral research by junior and senior scholars and will be awarded in amounts of $2000 to $6,000.

Grant application deadline: October 14, 2016

Applications, in English, should consist of ONE MS Word or PDF document. They should include:

1.         A proposal of no more than 1000 words which outlines the rationale and plan of research, presents a clear research question, reviews previous research and theory that form the basis of the study, describes the research methodology, and summarizes what the research aims to uncover.

2.         A detailed one-page budget indicating the items for which the applicant is seeking funding.

3.         A CV of no more than four pages.

4.         Please send to research.armenian@usc.edu.

What the grant covers

•          Grants are available for direct research expenses, such as the cost of hiring a research assistant or transcriber, computer software packages not typically provided by a college or university, and transportation, including travel to the region.

Expectations of grant recipients

•          Grant recipients are expected to complete and submit a final report summary by May 19, 2017. The report will describe (a) the background of the study, (b) the research methods used, (c) the findings, (d) how the funds were used.

•          Grant recipients are expected to mention the financial support of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies in any presentations or publications resulting from the research.

•          The actual performance period, or dates during which the research is conducted, is at the discretion of the recipient provided that it falls between November 10, 2016 and May 19, 2017.

Awards will be announced on November 1, 2016. 

About the Institute

Established in 2005, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies supports multidisciplinary scholarship to re-define, explore and study the complex issues that make up the contemporary Armenian experience – from post-Genocide to the developing Republic of Armenia to the evolving Diaspora. The institute encourages research, publications and public service, and benefits from communication technologies that link together the global academic and Armenian communities.

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USC INSTITUTE OF ARMENIAN STUDIES

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California, USA

Contact: Salpi Ghazarian, Director

Armenian@usc.edu

213.821.3943